AUSTRALIAN OPEN

January 28, 2026

Ben Shelton

Press Conference

J. SINNER/B. Shelton

6-3, 6-4, 6-4

THE MODERATOR: Tough luck, Ben. What impressed you most in Jannik's game tonight, and how do you assess your own performance?

BEN SHELTON: Yeah, I thought he returned very well, and I thought he was clutch with his serving. I thought that the area that there's a big difference today was in second-serve return. I thought that was a drop-off for me compared to what I've been doing with second-serve return earlier in the tournament.

That was just an area where I needed to be better today. I thought I played well from the baseline, volleyed well, and served pretty well for the most part. Just have to, you know, continue to get more accurate with my first serve and, yeah, I think second-serve return is huge.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. How do you feel? I mean, do you feel like you're getting closer to these guys at the top? I mean, you're bullish on certain things you've been working on. I'm just sort of wondering how you evaluate yourself. Do you look at scorelines, or do you think about how it feels to be out there with Jannik compared with how it was at Wimbledon last year or here a year ago?

BEN SHELTON: Yeah, I think my level is better, and I'm getting better and better and becoming a lot less limited. I think this game takes time, and the results don't always come when you want them.

You know, I'm getting to the point now where I'm getting stopped up by the toughest challenge in the game for the most part, and I do think that I'm close to bringing it all together.

I think it's just going to take that one time where I do do it to kind of get me over the hump. It's always been that way for me. Certainly not discouraged from a performance like this, but you know, I want to see myself get out in front and see what I can do from there in a match rather than falling behind just because I know how I feel when I get out in front at slams. I feel like, you know, I'm untouchable. I guarantee the other guys at the top feel the exact same.

So, for me, I think that, you know, it's a matter of time and work just trying to put all the pieces together, because I'm not complete yet, but I feel myself becoming more complete.

Q. Ben, it was only three years ago that we heard your name for the first time, and I distinctly remember hearing about how you'd never been outside of the U.S. before coming to your first Australian Open. I can sense you're extremely disappointed tonight, which is fair enough, but how long do you think it will be before you step back and start feeling proud about just how much you've achieved over the last three years?

BEN SHELTON: No, it's all about perspective, and I do have a great perspective for the most part. I know how blessed I am and lucky I am. I got great people around me, and that's why I do continue to make improvements.

But I'm an addict. I've become more and more addicted to this game and, you know, figuring things out, chasing the guys who are ahead of me. It's feeling the pressure that you feel on the court at a Grand Slam, there's no better feeling.

For me, it's a privilege to be out here every time, especially at the four biggest tournaments of the year. That's what, you know, drives me every day, and I just feel like the drive getting stronger and stronger each year.

Yeah, I feel that, you know, tonight I'm upset 100% with how it went, but I, you know, have a lot of belief in myself and confidence in the work that I know will be continuous and I'll continue to put in.

Q. We look at the version of you from the semis last year here at the AO to now today you've played against Jannik about four or five times since then.

JANNIK SINNER: Yeah.

Q. You seem to be constantly evolving your game, improving and getting better. Like your net game is looking strong, like all these other things that you sort of added. Just looking ahead, what have you sort of learnt from those experiences to get to the level that you're at today and what will you sort of take out of the experience that you have with Jannik today, like, you know, to get back?

BEN SHELTON: Yeah, I think I've become a lot more professional with the way that I do things, with the way that I practice, prepare for a match, my everyday routines, the amount of film that I watch, how locked in and focused I am during a tournament. That's been, you know, a big change for me and something that I need to continue to stack up.

But I think in terms of the evolution of my game, you know, I'm a different player than I was 12 months ago. I've felt like when I played Jannik here last year, the conditions were a lot better for me, and my level faded quickly in that match.

The last two sets weren't contentious at all, even though I served for the first set. I feel that I'm at my best at slams when it's hot, when the ball is bouncing. It's just a whole other dimension of my serve and my ball when I can get it out of the opponent's strike zone.

When it's a bit cooler, night matches and everything kind of comes down to the strike zone. It's tough to get the ball up and away. Jannik is a very tough out. I think that that was, you know, one of the tough things that I dealt with today. I felt like as well as I was hitting the ball, I couldn't get him out of his rhythm as much as I wanted to.

Q. Both Carlos and Jannik have talked about doing training things in their time between tournaments specific to each other, because they play each other so much on so many big occasions. I'm wondering if you have ever thought of doing that with Sinner and/or Alcaraz, if that's something that would make sense for you in some of your off time? The four last slams that you have completed, you've lost to one of those two guys. I wonder if there could be a Sinner-specific training block you could do at some point when you are home or in a training block and what that might look like?

BEN SHELTON: Yeah, 100% it's something that you formulate, you think about. When I go into a training block, it's part of it.

The goal is to continue to put myself in these situations and get to the point where, you know, I'm coming through. For me in the offseason there's certainly always talks about the top guys and how to make them feel uncomfortable in a bunch of different ways, but yeah, I agree completely. I think that that is really important.

I think matchups is everything in tennis, and it's a big focus, for sure. Obviously I want to continue to develop my weapons, my game, you know, 360, everything on the court.

But, I agree, at the same time there is a lot of days or times where we are pretty focused or locked in on a specific situation or scenario that pertains to one of the guys at the top.

Q. Just curious what specifically you've felt you should have been doing better on Jannik's second serve? Is it attacking it more, hurting him more, just putting more balls in the court? I'm just curious.

BEN SHELTON: Yeah, I think I had two second-serve looks on break points today, and I think I missed both of them, or maybe one of them I hit weak and he spread me quickly.

But I just think that I needed to be a little bit more aggressive and intentional with what I did with the second serve. I think that with other guys, I can get away with putting in the court and either being at neutral or having to scramble a little bit at the first ball and then getting back to neutral or getting on offense. I was doing a really good job of that.

But with a guy who has the plus-one ability that he has off of both sides, I needed to be a lot better and have more purpose with my second-serve return, which I thought that he had against me and was able to put me in uncomfortable positions and get to offense a good amount of times on my second serve and make me think about which serves I was using.

I felt like I just left the box a little bit too open for him tonight.

Q. Was that a mental thing or a technical improvement?

BEN SHELTON: No, I mean, I wouldn't say technical. I would just say tactical.

You know, that's what I mean when I say having a specific purpose, because I have the ability to return from deep. I have the ability to take the serve on early, although it's something that I need to continue to get better at.

But I think that the way I was talking about it was more with what I have right now on this day, regardless of improvements that I could make in the future, you know, what I should have done with what I have. It is just more tactics.